The present disclosure relates to a device for singulating and passing on upright containers.
Devices of this type are used in, for example, the pharmaceutical industry to singulate bottles, ampuls, or other containers.
There are many different ways of configuring a device of this type for separating or singulating a transport stream of upright containers.
In a simple embodiment of a device for separating a transport stream of upright containers according to US 20110308915 A1, the containers are transported by a feed device in a single row to the distribution point, where they are divided into two transport streams by one or more rollers of plastic or metal, which are driven around a vertical rotational axis.
Other devices for separating and singulating a transport stream of upright containers use star wheels, which are provided with receiving pockets for the containers. A device of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,717, for example. This device serves to divide a single row of transported objects into three onward-leading rows. The device comprises two counter-rotating star wheels, which are coupled together. Each of the containers of the product stream being supplied in a single row is first taken up by a receiving pocket of one of the star wheels and transported to a discharge position. By means of pusher elements attached to the star wheels, the containers are pushed out of the receiving pockets at that point and deflected into one of the three onward-leading paths. This device is mechanically complicated and divides the product stream into only three horizontal branches, in the course of which further packaging steps for the containers must then also be carried out.